Economic evaluation of “Intelligent MegaSwapBoxes” for advanced Intermodal Freight Transport through value orientated cost-effectiveness estimation

The success of intermodal transport solutions compared to exclusive road transport significantly depends on the cost efficiency, the improvement of interoperability and the exploitation of a maximized cargo area. Intermodal transport provides the opportunity to benefit from the advantages of each of the individual transport modes integrated in a system that is both cost effective and sustainable. The development of intelligent MegaSwapBoxes, a seamless and customer-oriented transport concept, marks an important step towards enhancing competitiveness. The paper focuses on the method of the Value Oriented Cost-Effectiveness Estimation. This method had been developed by the Institute for Management Cybernetics at RWTH Aachen University and combines the classical analysis of investment in monetary terms with relevant non-monetary variables or the so-called soft factors in the profitability analysis. In this paper, a new approach of the Value Oriented Cost-Effectiveness Estimation is presented and applied in excerpts within the TelliBox project “Intelligent MegaSwapBoxes for Advanced Intermodal Freight Transport”.